Porn, phantoms and public art

Taiwanese film-maker and multimedia artist Shu-lea Cheang stirred up a bit of controversy last September at the Taipei Biennial (Taipei Fine Arts Museum) with a live audition for her upcoming sci-fi porn film Fluid. Yet Cheang's casting call was more of a media spectacle, for the local Chinese press at least, than anything particularly scandalous.

Bondage and art for the Taipei Biennial, Fluid consists of separate experimental phases: mainstream advertising, casting, filming and museum display. The digital prints from the live casting session were recently installed at TFAM where they will remain on view to the end of the Taipei Biennial, Jan. 7.

After weeks of advertising in the local Taiwan press for aspiring porn stars, Cheang, on the night of the Biennial opening, filmed screen tests and shot photographs of the actors who performed nude or in bondage gear acting in front of a row of brightly lit urinals and a highly curious crowd of spectators. Even though some actors were a bit camera-shy, the casting set maintained the cool aura of a professional film shoot rather than a Saturnalian feast.

For this latest installment of Fluid, a discreet closet-like space on the second floor of the museum has been set aside. One wall contains three urinals, again brightly lit, each containing a white cream-filled condom. The partition wall is coated with 70 glossy digital prints from the casting session framed with thin lattice strips. Some photos have a neon green tint reminiscent of a Nan Goldin photograph. Extreme close-ups expose wet lips and tongues, glittery eye shadow, glistening sweat, hair follicles and skin pores. Cheang's stylized bondage images consist of two pairs of hands loosely tied together and a bullwhip lying on the floor. Besides these erotic digital prints on display, a flat screen monitor displays Fluid's Web site with its moving images: http://www.wmw.com.tw/fluid/. After the success of her seductive Japanese porn film i.k.u, Cheang was keen to cast Fluid in Taiwan. It will be shot in Denmark next year with an international cast. The film will explore the state's role in relation to the body, especially in light of the AIDS crisis. Her wide interests have also led Cheang to examine the hot-button issues of pornography in the museum setting while continuing to place avant-garde art films in the adult triple-X world. Cheang continues to challenge her audience with the question: when is something pornographic and when is it art?

Ghost stories

If you had the good fortune to go to TFAM last week, you may have seen a ghost wandering around in the basement. As legend goes, phantom-like creatures have been infesting the museum and making artworks disappear and causing a mysterious fire. Conceptual artist Tu Wei (杜偉) wanted to create an exhibition taking this ethereal figure as his starting point. His one-person show consisted of a sign posted adjacent to a locked gallery.

The sign showed that "you are here" and that the ghost is there. Besides warning visitors not to smoke, drink, eat or spread gossip, it also warned ghosts that they are unwelcome. According to Chinese beliefs, ghosts like to inhabit the corners of a room.

Tu Wei's installation was located in the most remote corner gallery in the museum's basement. Architecturally, the space has posed problems to artists trying to figure out how best to fill the cavernous gallery.